In its recent decision in Valley Bank and Trust Company v. Spectrum Scan, LLC (In re Tracy Broadcasting Corp.), the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit overturned lower court decisions that were casting serious doubt on a lender’s ability to realize value from its security interest in the proceeds of FCC broadcast licenses.  This alert will briefly describe the law governing security interests in FCC broadcast licenses, as well as the issues created by the lower courts – and ultimately resolved by the appeals court - in the Tracy case.

In the January 2008 issue, we reported on In re Solutia, Inc.,1 decided by the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of New York. The Solutia court demonstrated how contractual entitlements of debt instruments may be altered in bankruptcy. There, the original issue discount of certain secured notes was found to be interest, rather than principal, causing a significant portion of the noteholders’ claims to be disallowed. In In re Urban Communicators PCS, Ltd.